I spent one evening in Zamora before setting off in the direction of Porto. The sun was shining as I left town after a sumptuous buffet breakfast. As I crossed the Rio Douro there was a lovely view of the old town from the bridge. It was beautifully reflected in the river.
I stopped for about thirty minutes at the pedestrian bridge a little further on. There was a lot of bird life on the water and in the trees and bushes lining the shore. Flocks of pigeons wheeled in and out of the arches and landed in the shallows for a bathe and a drink. Jackdaws called from the trees and a couple of cormorants dived for fish, one either side of the bridge. People walked, jogged or cycling past me as I stood and watched what was going earound me.
Some chiffchaffs were singing in the trees and even more interestingly I noticed a tree sparrow carrying nesting material into a gap in the stonework of the bridge. Maybe it was bedding material rather than nesting material?
headwind made my progress slow. I was surrounded by huge arable fields, now either in stubble or ploughed ready for the next crop.
the vista opened up as I reached the edge of the plateau and I enjoyed a rapid descent to Fermoselle. In the plaza, the hands of the clock on the tower of the town hall were missing. Some places are just so laid back that theyve abolished time altogether.
As I spend on downhill I saw large lakes filling the valleys. Eventually I reached the level of the lakes and theres only one way to go from there. Back up again.
However first I had the pleasure of crossing the Bemposta dam which created the lakes Id seen earlier. Its a massive feat of engine, 87m high, 397m across in 1964.
I stopped to peer over the vertiginous cliff of concrete. I was surprised to see sand birds flying along the dam and landing, or rather cling to the near vertical surface.
I knew there was a chance of crag Martins here so I took loads of photos to check properly later against the Collins guide. When I
did, it turned out they were indeed crag martins. Another life tick for me. The clincher was the little white windows in their tail, which sand martins dont have.
Next day I only made it as far as Mogadouro. It started lashing rain about an hour after I set of. I took a cafe con leche break to decide what to do. I checked the weather radar. It wasnt good for the rest of the day. I checked The hotel 100m away had a room. It was only midday. Decision time. I checked the rain radar again, it looked like it was to get worse if anything. So I checked into the hotel.
The hotel was reasonably priced and very, So I had an easy day of reading and catching up with some of the news on the news channels. The rain grew absolutely torrential outside, so I did make a good choice.
It eased off for a while in late afternoon so I explored some if the little tracks around the village . Best bird I clocked up was Sardinian warbler. There was a fox in a far off field as well. I
took a little video,in the hope that it could turn out to be a wolf. Im pretty sure its only a fox though. But it is much darker than the foxes back home.
The weather was much better next morning so I set off from the cobbled streets of Mogadouro onto the tarmac of the open road.
On a hillside a little before Meirinhos I stopped to watch five griffon vultures soaring around a white hilltop cross. I considered playing dead to see if down closer and Id get the perfect vulture photo. But I feared that I might not have the strength to fight them off again after getting the snap.
One of the aids to navigation I use is Google maps. Today it was directing me to the IC5. I thought this was fine until I got to it and amongst the prohibitions was no cycling. Normally there is a smaller road parallel or very close to such roads. However in this case there was none.
On Outdoor Active I could see tracks marked so I decided to try them. They turned out to be a brilliant off road cycle.
